Changes in the Comments – Editing and Sharing the Love

One of the coolest things about blogging is the interaction that occurs when people comment. It’s not unusual here to have a better discussion in the comments than the original post provides.

I truly appreciate those readers that take the time and effort to comment. Well, I truly appreciate every reader, even those that never comment (and like everywhere out there, most readers never comment).

I’ve just added a few features here on Phoenix Real Estate Guy that provides a little incentive and reward for those that comment, and I’ve tried to make it a little easier for commenters by adding comment editing.

DoFollow

I suspect most people are not aware that links in blog comments are initially set up as “nofollow” links. This means the search engines basically ignore the links. I’ve been a “Do Follow” adopter from the beginning of the ‘do follow movement’. Comment links here ARE followed by Google and other search engines. For more info, Dave Smith has a great article on Do Follow.

CommentLuv

I’ve just installed the CommentLuv plugin. This will automatically search for a feed from your blog (assuming you put your blog into the “Website” field in the comment form) and put a link to your last post at the bottom of your comment. In theory, this may entice readers of this blog to check out your latest comment — which helps your traffic, and that link is also followed, which gives you a little more link love. There’s an example in the image at the bottom of this post. Note: It will take a few seconds for the system to “find” your last post, please be patient! And if your RSS feed isn’t auto-detectable, it won’t find it at all.

KeywordLuv

I’ve also just installed KeywordLuv. While the “Luv” suffix is getting annoying, this is a pretty nifty plugin. It’s common to see commenter names like “Timbuktu Real Estate” or “Hotshot Lawyer”, particularly in DoFollow blogs. This is because people know that adding key words to links containing their URL, they get “extra credit” from search engines. With KeywordLuv, you can leave Your name AND keywords, and the system will create the link with your key words.

All you have to do is enter ‘Your Name@Your keywords’ in the comment form name field.

Like this:

That will display as in the example below.

With this, we can all get your name — helps with the whole “community building thing” and you get your keywords.

Reply – Quote other comments

As you can see in the example below, there are now links in the comments that will enable you to reply to a specific comment and quote a comment. I haven’t played with this feature yet, but it’s a part of what appears to be a very cool plugin, WP Comment Remix. UPDATE: This one is acting a bit wonky, so I’m going to turn off the reply/quote function.

Most Active Commentators

Somewhere along the way, I lost the Top Commentators out of the side bar. It’s back, currently residing in the bottom of the first side bar. This is a list of the most active commentators (by number of comments). The count resets each month to zero. If you want a picture / logo to show up there, go to Gravatar.com (this will also add a pic/logo in the comments area). This list is part of the Comment Remix plugin linked above.

Comment Editing

I am a lousy typist. I can type fairly fast, but I have to look at the keys and I make mistakes. I’ve left countless typos scattered across the Internet. In the vast majority of blogs, once you type a comment and click “submit”, your comment is committed and there is nothing you can do to correct silly typos.

That’s no longer an issue on Phoenix Real Estate Guy! You will now have up to 15 minutes after you submit a comment to edit it (or your name, email or URL). 15 minutes seems long enough to me, but if someone thinks they’ll need more time, just… well, leave a comment!

This feature was implemented with Ajax Edit Comments 2.0.

Just for Grins

A few days ago, I added a “Widget Test Area” at the bottom of the far right column. Things may appear here only fleetingly, or they may earn a permanent spot somewhere. Who knows. If you ever see something there and you want more info on it, just ask!

Here’s an example of all these things in action. As always, I reserve the right to change anything or everything! I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on these changes!

• RSS Updates
• Email Updates

Welcome Twitter Friends

Test blog from Perfomancing add-in for Firefox

Cramer Comments on Housing; and a NJ Realtor Group Gets Whiny